“Ah, Kageyuki! How’d it go?”
When I arrived at the usual cabin, Shiranui’s face lit up as she ran over to me.
For some reason, the mental image of a puppy wagging its tail popped into my head—way too rude to say out loud. Instead, I just raised a hand in greeting.
“Hey, Shiranui. You alone?”
“Y-Yeah. For now. Isago-san and Minase-san were here earlier.”
“Ah, I just saw them. So they came here too, huh?”
“Yeah. Oh, but Isago-san said something like, ‘Standing’s tiring, so I’m gonna nap in the clubroom!’”
“Dead-on impression.”
“Ahaha. It’s my specialty.”
“Former child genius, huh? But seriously, what is that fairy…?”
As I muttered in exasperation, Shiranui chimed in.
“Ahaha… But she’s amazing, you know? Isago-san.”
No doubt about that, but “amazing” didn’t even begin to cover it.
“…How’d she even get into this school, anyway? Do you know, Shiranui?”
“Magic tricks.”
“Huh?”
I blinked. Shiranui continued.
“Magic. She passed the entrance exam with a magic act.”
“She can do magic?”
“Nope. She can’t do magic—but she still passed with it.”
—That’s why she’s amazing, Shiranui said.
But I didn’t get it.
“What does that mean?”
“Well, this is just what I heard… She brought a deck of cards to the interview, had the teacher pick one, and then—with no tricks or gimmicks—guessed the card just by talking.”
“……The entrance exam is for elementary schoolers, right?”
“Yep.”
“So at that age, she was already some kind of mentalist?”
“With that kind of genius-level psychology skills, why does she act like that normally?”
Kimiya is pretty extreme too, but Isago’s abilities are downright monstrous…
“Wait, is Minase some kind of genius too?”
When I casually asked, Shiranui paused to think for a moment.
“Hmm… Well, her grades are top-tier, so she seems like the most genius-type genius. As for her entrance exam… I think I heard it was something about information processing?”
“Information processing, huh… That does sound like the most skill-based skill.”
“Ahaha. Honestly, the only impression I have is that she’s good with computers.”
It was a pretty dumb take, but honestly, I wasn’t much different.
“Minase’s family runs a private investigation agency, right? I think she used her experience helping out there for her entrance exam. And apparently, she’s known Isago for a long time because of family connections.”
“Huh…”
So that’s what Minase meant by “family business.”
A politician’s daughter and a PI’s daughter, connected through family ties… Probably best not to dig too deep into that.
“You sure know a lot, Shiranui.”
“Ahaha. When I first started here, I tried hard to make friends, so I memorized a bunch of stuff about my classmates…”
“Oh… That’s kind of sad……. I’m sorry”
“D-Don’t apologize for that!?”
She puffed out her cheeks, and I raised a hand in surrender.
Shiranui kept sulking for a bit before finally relaxing.
“Oh, by the way—Minase said she’d handle the paperwork with Oshimi-senpai.”
“That so? Having someone competent on the team really speeds things up.”
“……I-I’m sorry for being incompetent then!”
“I didn’t say that. You’re fine as long as you can act, right?”
“Hmph! Kageyuki, you dummy!”
She stuck out her tongue (“Bleh!”) and glared at me.
Then, just as quickly, she pulled back.
“……From now on, I’m calling you ‘Kageyuki’ without honorifics. Because you’re mean.”
She said it while blushing slightly.
……Seriously. Her cuteness was almost unfair.
“Th-That’s okay, right!? You don’t mind, right!?”
“Huh? You’ve done it all the time before.”
“I don’t care! Just give me a proper yes or no!”
*”Fine by me. Hell, you can even use my first name if you want. Sou.”
“Th—!”
“Close~ (?)”
“S-So… Sou… that’s still too much…”
“Pfft, what are you even—ahaha!”
Shiranui’s flustered reaction made me laugh so hard my shoulders shook.
She pouted at me for a while before finally sighing and straightening up.
“Shiranui?”
“——Thanks, Kageyuki.”
“For what? I haven’t done anything worth mentioning.”
“That’s not true. You didn’t abandon me.”
“Nah…”
If anything, I should be thanking her.
Her complete lack of calculation reminded me of a lot of things.
“You were the one who said it. ‘Everyone—they were my friends.’”
“Eh?”
“That hit me. That’s why I decided to help.”
Because it was something I couldn’t do.
Someone even more awkward and even more straightforward than me—I couldn’t just ignore her.
That’s all there was to it.
For some reason, Shiranui stared at me silently.
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“……What?”
“Nothing. ……It’s just, I was kinda quoting someone else.”
“Quoting?”
“Yeah. Well, not exactly, but… a long time ago, someone said something similar—”
After saying that, Shiranui becomes silent again.
She trailed off, then suddenly locked eyes with me.
“Hey, Kageyuki. Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, but… what is it?”
“So, um… back then, you… uh…”
“What?”
“N-Never mind! Forget it!”
“Hah?”
She shook her head vigorously, biting back whatever she was about to say.
Now I was curious.
“What? What were you gonna say?”
“It’s a secret! Even if I’m right or wrong, it’s too embarrassing to say! Just forget it!!”
“……?”
“Anyway, be prepared!”
She pointed straight at me,
then declared:
“I might seem lighthearted, but I’m actually pretty heavy baggage. So consider it bad luck that you got stuck with me!”
“Bad luck…?”
“Now that we’re here, you’re stuck with me! You’re taking responsibility till the end!”
What an outrageous declaration.
Honestly, I might’ve acted too soon—the thought almost made me laugh.
Still, I nodded.
“Got it. I’ll take responsibility, so don’t worry.”
“Y-You said it! I’m holding you to that!”
“Don’t worry.”
“——Then I’m never letting go.”
She muttered it softly, her face burning red,
before quickly waving her hands to brush off the embarrassment.
“That’s all! O-Okay, I’ve got to meet with Hiyama-sensei now, so I’m going!?”
“Oh, right. Got it. See you later.”
“Yeah. ——See you, Kageyuki!”
With that, Shiranui—her ears still bright red—hurried off.
……What am I supposed to make of that?
I watched her go until she disappeared, my mind wandering elsewhere.
She did mention something about the past…
“Their faces don’t look alike… I think. Could it really have been Shiranui?”
That day, at that party—was Natsuki the same as Shiranui Natsuki?
The thought crossed my mind for just a second, but I quickly dismissed it.
Honestly, I barely remember her face. If it was Shiranui, I probably would’ve recognized her—she was a child actress, after all. That kind of coincidence just doesn’t happen.
Besides, there’s no way she would remember me.
Running into each other at the same high school? That’s not the kind of miracle that happens.
“Not like we’d have anything to talk about anyway…”
Was I supposed to say, “Thanks to you ditching me, I turned out like this”?
That’d be way too bitter. I don’t have the luxury of clinging to some random person from my past. Maybe it’s time to forget.
I shook my head, forcing the memories away.
Time to head back—I stretched and got ready to leave.
——Then, right as I was about to go, A voice called out from behind me.
“Excuse me! Hey, can I talk to you for a sec!?”
“——Hm?”
I turned around in surprise.
A girl in uniform was jogging toward me from the direction of the second club building.
She stopped in front of me and smiled brightly—the kind of smile that instantly made you like her.
“You’re a high school senpai, right? There’s something I wanna ask.”
“……Uh, sure.”
I didn’t recognize her.
Well, to be fair, I still didn’t know most of the students here.
But her unfamiliarity stood out—
mainly because her uniform was different.
Darker, more muted than Seishinkan High’s girls’ blazer.
The only thing I knew was that it was the uniform for Seishinkan Middle School.
“Oh, do you have time?”
“Yeah, it’s fine, but… this is kinda unusual?”
“Maybe! Ehehe.”
She tilted her head, laughing. The middle schooler was a full head shorter than me.
Middle schoolers weren’t rare—since Seishinkan was a combined middle and high school, we shared the campus.
But you almost never saw them around.
Their buildings were completely separate, and even the gates were different.
To avoid morning crowds, middle and high schoolers had to take different routes from the station.
Most middle school facilities were clustered on the west side, so spotting one all the way out here near the northeast was weird. Not forbidden, just unusual.
The girl said to me.
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